Jaded Waters
by Lightning-kun
Summary: A mutation in Naruto's genes causes him to have an unnatural ability to control water. As he learns to control this new power from scratch, the Akatsuki make plans to capture the Bijuu spread across the nations. Joining forces with his friends, and even the beast inside him, Naruto carves his path into history as one of the greatest ninjas of his time. -Rating may change-


Hey guys. This is a story I thought up, but it's mostly just trying out a slightly different writing style than usual. All my other stories are on hold at the moment, partly because I've been really busy and partly because the internet sucks so much here. Don't worry, my other stories will be updated/rewritten sooner or later.

Anyway, this chapter is just the introduction. You will notice that until the graduation, everything is pretty much Canon. I only changed dialogue and a few small things at the moment, but soon enough the changes get more noticeable. Hope you enjoy the different style, and the story. I'm already working on the next chapter to keep you entertained.

* * *

It had only been a few hours since the Kyuubi attacked. Only a few hours since so many lives had been lost. Only a few hours since one of the greatest heroes of Konoha gave up his life, and his son's life as well. The Fourth Hokage protected his village by sealing the giant chakra beast inside his newborn son, both him and his wife dieing in the process. What exactly happened a few hours ago, no one knew. The only sign of life left in the area where the beast disappeared was a crying baby, whisker marks adorning his cheeks and a complex design on his stomach.

Naruto Uzumaki, he was named. Few know of his true heritage, kept hidden by the reinstated Third Hokage- Hiruzen Sarutobi. Currently, a meeting with the council of Konoha had just ended, with no one the wiser about the baby's heritage; only knowing that the Kyuubi's immense power was kept at bay by ink on the child's skin. Fear was still running rampant among the villagers, causing reason and judgment to be on the back-burner of everyone's minds. Much of the village saw the boy as the beast he held, and hated or feared him because of it. This had caused a large argument during the council meeting, with the final ruling being that Naruto was to be left alone as an orphan, and not told of him immense burden until deemed fit. This had angered a few of the more active council members, mainly the elder known as Danzo. But, overruled by the Hokage, they kept quiet and accepted the terms.

* * *

Another few hours had passed, this time with the boy and the aged Hokage at the hospital. The doctors ran many tests on the boy, to make sure there was nothing wrong with his body because of the rushed- and unplanned, sealing.

"Hokage-sama, there doesn't seem to be anything particularly _wrong_with the boy, but there are a few abnormalities in his system." The doctor flipped his notes over and read off what they had discovered. "The most noticeable thing was an advanced healing factor; any small damage done to him from the tests we ran healed quite fast, causing us to do more tests just on that. The light cuts we administered to various parts of his body healed remarkably, not leaving any trace that there was anything done in the first place."

The Hokage seemed surprised at this development, but it looks like that wasn't the only thing abnormal about Naruto. "What else did you find?" He questioned, utmost seriousness in his voice.

The doctors flipped the page again and resumed speaking. "There are traces of the Kyuubi's youkai in the boy's undeveloped chakra system, but we assumed that the seal had been designed to do so. A few abnormalities were most likely caused by that, but aren't worrisome. The only concerning thing we found was a slight mutation in his genes. We don't know what exactly the mutation is, but it doesn't seem to be causing any trouble in his body, so you shouldn't worry too much." Finished with his notes, the doctor took a breath and put away the clipboard. "That is all, Hokage-sama."

The aged Hokage seemed troubled, but nodded. "Thank you, Ikuto-san. I'll be taking him now, there is other work to be done." The doctor nodded and exchanged good-bye's with Hiruzen, leaving the room. Hiruzen picked up Naruto and left as well, headed to his office to reacquaint himself with the work of a Hokage.

* * *

The years passed quickly, with Naruto growing up alone. Hiruzen made as much time as he could for the boy, but he couldn't be there all the time. Naruto was kicked out of the orphanage at the age of five, for reasons unknown to the boy, and shortly afterwards, was given an apartment to live in by the Hokage. At the proper age, Hiruzen had Naruto enrolled in the Ninja Academy. Naruto was fascinated with ninja's, especially the Hokages. Seeing how everyone respected Hiruzen, Naruto wanted to become a strong ninja too, so he could gain that same respect. As of now, he got nothing but fearful or hateful glances and glares.

The academy years were disappointing. Most of the teachers refused to teach Naruto, discriminating against him and feeding him false information or just outright ignoring him. Naruto was by no means dumb, but lack of social interaction and proper teaching left much to be desired in the boy. Many of his classmates hated his obnoxious behavior, and refused to make friends with him, enforced even more by many of the parents telling their kids he was bad.

Naruto barely made his way through the academy, bringing us to the graduation test for his class.

"Naruto...I'm sorry, but you failed." The only teacher that actually taught Naruto anything, Iruka Umino, said sadly. "You could not produce a proper clone, let alone the required three, and your grades are abysmal. I'm sorry," he repeated, "but I cannot let you pass the exams with such a performance."

Naruto looked absolutely heartbroken, and quickly rushed out of the academy building. He sat on the tree swing outside, ignoring the jeers and chatter of the families around him. He didn't care what they thought about him anymore. He didn't care about anything now, except that he had failed. Failed to graduate, failed to become a ninja. He wasn't even aware of the presence behind him until a hand came down on his shoulder gently. Surprised, Naruto turned around to find his other sensei, Mizuki.

"Hey there, kid," he greeted. "I just wanted to see how you were doing, seeing that you rushed off and all." Mizuki sighed at the depressed look he got in return, and leaned in conspiratorially. Whispering into Naruto's ear, Mizuki softly said, "Hey, Naruto. I think I know a way to get you graduated. There's a make-up test we offer to students who excel in areas that don't exactly get them graduated the normal way. I know how good you are at stealth, what with all the pranks you play, so how about it?"

Needless to say, Naruto agreed. Since he was so lacking in social conduct, Naruto saw nothing wrong with the plan Mizuki told him about. He merely thought he was stealing a fake scroll to test himself.

* * *

Getting the scroll was easier than he thought, though he had a close call when the Hokage himself almost stumbled upon Naruto. With quick thinking on his part, the stealthy blond disguised both him and the giant scroll he carried. If Hiruzen noticed anything wrong, he didn't do anything about it, simply walking past Naruto.

Now, Naruto was reading the scroll in a clearing, studying up for the second part of his test. "Let's see...Mizuki-sensei told me that I need to learn a technique from this scroll with the remaining time I have. That should be a piece of cake!" Naruto read a few of the names to himself, not finding any of them interesting, until...

"Shadow Clones? Maybe I'll have better luck with this version than the regular one!" He somewhat shouted out loud to himself. He started practicing immediately, starting with the weird hand seal the technique used.

A few hours later finds an exhausted Naruto grinning happily at the scroll. It had taken up almost all the time he had left, but he had finally got the hand of the shadow clone jutsu! He rolled up the scroll, just in time to suddenly be greeted by Iruka.

"Naruto! What the hell do you think you're doing with the forbidden scroll of sealing!" Iruka shouted at the blond, who was just rubbing his head in confusion.

"Eh? Did Mizuki-sensei have something else to do? Oh well, I'll just show you the awesome technique I learned! I'll get my headband if I show you it, right? Mizuki-sensei told me so!" The blonde shouted, completely ignorant of his crime. Iruka, however, looked scandalized. Mizuki had planned this? He didn't have time to think, as Mizuki himself arrived on scene.

"Crap, I didn't think you'd be here with the little demon, Iruka." Mizuki sneered at the pair, turning to Naruto. "Give me the scroll, Naruto! Then I'll give you the headband I promised," Mizuki said sweetly, not noticing the betrayed look the boy had.

"Like hell I'm giving the scroll to you! You had me steal an important scroll, if I heard Iruka-sensei right!" The blond shouted at his gray-haired teacher, moving the scroll to a more comfortable position. "If you want the scroll, you'll have to get it yourself!"

Iruka's eyes widened as he noticed Mizuki reaching for a weapon. "Naruto, no!" He shouted, rushing over to the blond. He was just in time, as he tackled Naruto to the ground, barely dodging the kunai Mizuki had thrown. Unfortunately, he was unable to dodge the follow-up attack, and took a barrage of kunai and shuriken to his back. He cried out in pain, as Naruto froze up beneath him.

"Iruka...sensei?" He whispered, eyes fixated on the blood running down his teacher's body. Iruka smiled down at the boy, and pulled one of the kunai out of his body.

"Get out of here, Naruto..." He said weakly, standing up and throwing the kunai at Mizuki. "I'll protect you, even if I die."

Naruto teared up a bit, but hightailed it out of there, being saved from the irate Mizuki's weapons by a recovering Iruka. "What the hell do you think you're doing, protecting that _thing_," Mizuki spat out angrily. "It killed your family, and destroyed half of the village!" Iruka glared at Mizuki heatedly, neither knowing that Naruto was hiding in the bushes nearby. "You should be helping me kill that monster, Iruka! He is the Kyuubi and you know it!"

Naruto's eyes widened in confusion; what did he mean by that? "You're right, the Kyuubi did kill my family. It did many horrible things that night, twelve years ago," Iruka said calmly. Naruto's eyes watered and widened even more. Was he...was he really the monster they were talking about? "But you're wrong about one thing. Naruto isn't the Kyuubi. Naruto is an innocent boy burdened with the task of protecting idiots like you from the Kyuubi!" Iruka roared, charging back at Mizuki in a fit of rage. Both Naruto and Mizuki had been taken off guard; Naruto, because he had been surprised that someone stood up for him, and Mizuki because he wasn't ready for the sudden charge.

Mizuki defended himself sloppily and pushed away Iruka. "If you really feel that way, then I'll just have to kill you with that demon!" Mizuki quickly disarmed the stumbling teacher, and went to cut his throat. Iruka's eyes closed as he accepted his death, unable to defend himself from the killing blow. But to his surprise, it didn't come. He landed harshly on the ground from his stumble, and opened his eyes to see Mizuki a dozen yards away, coughing against a tree. Naruto stood in front of Iruka, with determination in his eyes.

"If you even think of touching Iruka-sensei again...I'll kill you!" Naruto shouted, hands balled into fists. Mizuki stood up, still coughing, but laughing lightly.

"You surprised me with that, brat. But you won't do it again! Prepare to die you filthy demon!" Mizuki shouted, brandishing one of his giant windmill shuriken he was carrying on his back.

Naruto smirked while preparing his hand sign. "Bring it, Mizuki-teme! I'll deliver back whatever you throw at me a thousand fold! Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Both the chunin's eyes widened to saucers as the forest became filled with copies of Naruto, all brandishing kunai or shuriken. "Not coming?" They taunted, "Then allow us to come to you!"

The fight, if you could call it that, ended quickly. Overwhelmed and confused by the multitude of bodies attacking him, Mizuki fell quickly to the onslaught of attacks. Naruto dispelled his clone army and rubbed his head, checking on Iruka. "I guess I overdid it a bit, huh?"

Iruka chuckled lightly and shrugged, wincing as pain shot through his body. "Hey Naruto..." He said quietly. Naruto gave his sensei a questioning look. "Close your eyes for a second, okay?" Iruka smiled as the blond complied, and quickly took off his headband and swapped it for Naruto's goggles. "Congratulations, Naruto. You graduate!"

Naruto just started crying happily and hugged Iruka with all his might, ignoring his teachers pained cries for him to stop.

* * *

Leave a review if you would. I would love feedback about my slightly different style, and if you just like the story in general. I suppose I won't get to many reviews for the first chapter since it's still basically cannon, so I'll get to work on the next one right away.


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